Essay Plan

Introduction explaining the focus of the essay

• I shall be looking at 6 primary texts directed by Quentin Tarantino; Pulp Fiction, Death Proof, Kill Bill vo1&2, Jackie Brown and Inglorious Basterds. 
• Does Quentin Tarantino represent women as macho and males as the feminine (the switching of stereotypical roles) 
• How accurate is Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' in relation to Tarantino's representation of women?
• Is Marjorie Ferguson and Trevor Millum's facial expression theory relevant to how Tarantino represents women?

As Jonathan Schroeder notes, 'Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view' (Schroeder 1998, 208). http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html accessed on 17th September 2014. 


Description of key texts 

1. Pulp Fiction, 1994, Tarantino 

• The narrative begins with a couple in a diner (Honey Bunny and Pumpkin) In a matter of seconds the couple take over the diner in order to rob it for money. Instantly Tarantino has portray the first male/female relationship in the film with a dominant female. In the above shot, 'Honey Bunny' seems to be portrayed as the dominant in the relationship; not only does she have control of the conversation, but also control of the scene. She is nearest to the camera, sitting upright with good posture (this could indicate that she feels that she has the most power) where as 'Pumpkin' is 'slumped' in the corner of the booth, one may argue that this shot portrays the dominance and power that the female has over the submissive 'Pumpkin'. Again, in the second picture, she still has the power in the relationship/situation; she is in the centre of the shot, as well as the larger (blocking) this is portraying her dominance and female power.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jomr9SAjcyw accessed 17th September 2014.

• The narrative is not structured in a linear form, but jumps through time, this unwinds the plot of the text in a more complex route. 

• 2 hit men; Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfeld both work from Marsellus Wallace. Who has asked Vincent to take his wife out for a meal whilst he is out of town. 
• Butch is an ageing boxer who is paid by Marsellus to lose his next fight (however we later find out that this does not happen)
• Once we are introduced to Mia, we see Vincent's power deteriorate, as Mia's sexuality and confidence intimidates his masculinity. Mia is completely in control with the situation; she sucks on the straw of her milkshake as well as a red glaze cherry which seems to be symbolically seductive. Link these facial expressions to 'invitational' by Marjorie Ferguson

• After Mia Wallace 'OD's, none of the men are particularly 'heroic'. It is almost as if Tarantino has emasculated these men.
• Butch's partner Fabienne, arguably is not particularly strong, however she uses her 'innocent' sexuality to entice Butch into getting her own way, therefore one could argue that she does succeed in emasculating him. When Butch loses his temper with Fabienne for forgetting the watch (the one thing he asked for in particular) she weakens and becomes more 'feminine' and powerless. Fabienne uses this well as he quickly apologises to her and continues to be emasculated and under her control.  

• After a chase between Butch and Marcellus (because Butch did not lose the fight like Marcellus paid him to).  Butch runs into a gun shop (phallic imagery) who is later followed by Marcellus. This results into a 'kidnapping' and rape scene of the two men. Both Butch and Marcellus are extremely 'macho' characters, however this scene degrades and emasculates the men completely. The 'policeman' chooses who is to go first by singing 'eenie meenie minie moo, catch a nigger' by choosing who is to go first degrade them even more as it almost portrays them as being picked off the shelf. He also says 'nigger' which degrades the most powerful man in the hierarchy of the film. This could show Marcellus's loss of power and control in this scene, as it is most likely that he would not let this man get away with calling him that, previously  (refer back to pushing the man off of the building for giving his wife a foot rub.) relating back to the question; does Tarantino portray men as the feminine and women as the macho? In this scene Tarantino plays around with gender stereotypes. Usually it is the weak female who is raped, it is very very rare to see a male being raped in a film, especially as Tarantino has included two of the most masculine in the film, not only have they been raped and degraded, but it was done in a very grotesque 'masculine' way involving  a gimp and bondage items. 
• Butch soon escapes however he contemplates and goes back to get Marcellus. He holds a large Samuari sword to the policeman's neck, one could argue this is an extremely obvious portrayal of phallic imagery, especially when combined with Butch 'teasing' or tempting the policeman to pick up the gun near to him, (a gun is also a symbol of phallic imagery) however this emasculates the policeman as he knows if he touches this gun he will be killed. 
• We see Marcellus gain power within next shot as he rises in the background. He is holding a large, long gun and shoots the policeman. Marcellus is the one who was raped, as the two men chose him first, Marcellus shots the man in the low stomach which does not kill him. Marcellus speaks which emasculates the man as he has now lost all of his dominance, power and control. He speaks in 'medieval' / caveman terms about his revenge to this man, which helps Marcellus gain back his position in the hierarchy. He is also shot in the centre of the frame, the audience can clearly see the positioning of the phallic gun, which also helps to contribute to his regaining of power. The frame seems to have been shot as a point of view shot, as it looks up from underneath Marcellus; also highlighting the regaining of power. This is the point of view from the policeman who is crouched on the floor, his position is extremely weakened as the point of view shot portrays. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWkN3akP3cU accessed 17th September 2014

2. Death Proof, 2007, Tarantino

"If he likes the way you move. He decides the way you die." Spoken during the trailer, 'you' is directed at the audience which the marjority would be women so they connect with the main female characters. 

The film is almost split into two. The first half the women are all victims and killed; they tease and entice with their sexuality which eventually leads to their death. 

The second half, stuntman Mike messes with the wrong women. Although these women do not act much differently when portraying their sexuality, the are strong and the powerful, dominant women. They eventually kill stuntman Mike in reverse. One could argue that this is a portrayal of Tarantino switching the stereotypical roles of males and females. In the first half Tarantino portrays the stereotypical weak female; because they flaunt their sexuality this results in their downfall/harmatia; in this case it is their death. Stuntman Mike gets away with this being the stereotypical caveman. In he second half stuntman Mike meets with the new type of liberated woman they use their sexuality to the same extent as the previous trio, however they are not defeated by stuntman Mike; his death and their restrain results in his emasculation. The previous women did not fight back in comparison to the last threesome. 

In the opening scene, Tarantino uses an extreme close up shot of one of the first three girls holding her crotch because she needs the toilet. This is almost a form of exploitation as this is not commonly seen or known that women do. The extreme close up could portray her confidence with her sexuality 

One may also say that this shot seems to capture a more sexual, almost pornographic view rather than 'needing the toilet'. This is the first portrayal of the females sexuality 

Jackie Brown, 1997 

Interview with Tarantino, Jackie Brown DVD, 1997 'looking back on Jackie Brown' 

The aims of the research: details of what you are seeking to find out / subject question 



Bibliography / Filmography
http://www.slideshare.net/fleckneymike/the-male-gaze-laura-mulvey accessed 17th September 2014. 
http://www.slideshare.net/KatiebethjessTrotter/presentation1-26943740?next_slideshow=1 accessed 17th September 2014.